Of things beginning with A
by Steph-Schell
Summary: A young Ashley finds out that Lewis Carroll got the story of Alice all wrong


Helen poked her head into Ashley's bed room. The girl was sitting up in bed, clutching Katie the stuffed rabbit, just waiting for her story. "Momma," she cried. "Come tell me a story."

Helen smiled at her daughter. "Check list first," she reminded her. "Did you brush your teeth?" Ashley nodded. "Wash your face?" Another nod. "Go to the bathroom?" A flurry of nods this time. "Very well," Helen agreed. "Which story would you like to hear tonight?"

"Alice in Wonderland," Ashley crowed.

Helen pursed her lips with an angry huff of breath. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She simply couldn't understand why Ashley liked those books so much. They weren't even the truth. "Are you sure you don't want mummy to read you something different?" Helen asked. "There's a number of other books that are just lovely."

Ashley studied her mother with childish curiosity. "Don't you like that story?" she asked.

"It is not my favorite," Helen hedged.

"Why not? I think it's a pretty story."

Helen moved to sit on the bed next to her young daughter. "It is a very pretty story," she agreed. "However it is not the truth. Lewis Carroll changed everything around so much it's no longer recognizable."

Ashley's face scrunched in confusion. "How do you know?" she asked.

"Because I talked to Alice," Helen said simply.

Ashley's eyes went wide with something akin to awe. "You met Alice?" she repeated.

"I did," Helen agreed. "The one day a year she came topside. She had spoken to Lewis Carroll by then and she was furious with his transcription of her story. She wanted to talk to someone who wouldn't take such liberties if they ever wrote the truth down."

"Why was she only allowed up one day a year?" Ashley wondered.

"Because that was how long Tarrant could stand to be away from her." Helen let out a sigh. "He really did love her, very dearly."

"Who's Tarrant?" Ashley questioned.

"That is the Mad Hatter's given name," Helen explained. "Though Alice would often refer to him as just Hatter. It was her special pet name for him." Helen let a smile play around her lips. "He was such a sweet man. Completely insane as Carroll said but it was a much…kinder madness than others I had known. Especially when it came to Alice."

"Who do you know who's mad?" Ashley wanted to know.

Helen looked down at her daughter. The words 'your father' hovered on her lips but Ashley was far too young to hear that story. "Just certain people," she decided on instead. "But they were meaner about things. Tarrant just wanted to make Alice happy no matter what it cost him."

"Was he an Abnormal?"

Helen nodded. "A most curious one indeed," she told her.

"Tell me the real story," Ashley demanded in her bossy, five year old way.

Helen smiled down at her little girl. "If that is what you want." Ashley's head bobbed several times. "Lie back then, and settle down." Ashley did as she was asked while Helen considered how to start everything. "Tarrant was a most unusual Abnormal," she began. "He had the ability to…make worlds I suppose you could say." She looked down to realize Ashley was confused. It didn't surprise Helen, this story had confused her the first time she heard it. In fact it had taken her almost fifty years to tease out something resembling a coherent story. "Do you remember the lady that we met in France?" Helen asked her. "The one with the grey hair and pretty blue eyes."

"The one that made the pretty pictures," Ashley replied.

"That's her," Helen nodded. "Tarrant's ability worked much the same way. Except his pictures were so real you couldn't tell them apart from the world outside. They were in fact real enough that if he concentrated right he could actually live in them."

"That sounds fun," Ashley giggled.

"That was Tarrant's thinking by the time I had met him," Helen smiled. "He was so far gone by then it was a miracle he could still speak clearly. Might I add that Tarrant was a part of a race that could live for hundreds of years with very little change in appearance once they reached maturity." She paused as she thought about how to put this right. "He first noticed Alice when she was a very little girl. She was taking lessons in a small garden. She was very young then."

"As young as she is in the story?" Ashley wondered.

"About that age," Helen agreed. "Tarrant thought her the prettiest child on the planet. He wanted to know more about her. He told me he didn't realize it then but he had scented her as his mate. It's a very complicated process but the basics are that his body had decided she would be the one he would spend his life with."

"What did he do?" Ashley asked.

"He spotted a white rabbit hopping near her. That gave him an idea. He reached into her head without knowing it and pulled out all what would make the best fantasy for her. Then he put it in to action."

"So he did all the things in the book?" Ashley wanted to know.

"Every one of them," Helen agreed. "And Alice loved every minute of it. He came to her every month for nearly five years."

"Then what happened? Did he sweep her off her feet and take her to Wonderland?" Ashley asked.

"Not then," Helen told her. "After all she was still quite young. She was taken away from her home and hidden for a time. Her father had died so her mother moved them to London for a time. When Alice turned sixteen they moved back. That was when Tarrant found her again. He was most surprised with what he found there."

"Was Alice different?" Ashley wondered.

"Of course she was different," Helen said. "Everyone changes with the years."

"You don't," Ashley pointed out, echoing her mother's thoughts.

"I'm the exception," Helen explained. "But that is not what worried Tarrant. It seems Alice was to be engaged to another man." Helen noted that her daughter had scrunched up her face in preparation for a howl of rage. "Not that she wanted to," Helen quickly added to soothe Ashley. "But because her family wanted it."

"But she should have gone with Hatter," Ashley pouted.

"There wasn't much choice back then," Helen sighed, remembering a time when your father made those decisions for you. "But Tarrant went to her party. And once again he used a white rabbit to pull her into his world. This time he made her champion out of her desire for adventure. He had deeply hoped that she would consent to stay with him but she said there were things in real world she needed to take care. Tarrant was heartbroken but he respected her decision. She traveled all over the world for a time. Tarrant appeared to her in her dreams. Then he gave her the adventure that is written about in _Through the Looking Glass_."

Ashley gave her mother a curious look. "Did he ever get her to come back to Wonderland with him?" she wondered.

"He did," Helen nodded. "He came to her in a dream while she was in China again. He said he liked it there because of the tea." Ashley giggled at that statement. "Alice said that the way he spoke touched her so deeply that she simply had to agree to his marriage proposal."

"Did they live in Wonderland?" Ashley asked in a breathless sort of way.

"They did," Helen agreed. "And Tarrant gave her a new adventure every day. But Alice still had family in the real world and she wanted to visit them once in a while. So Tarrant agreed that every year on April 15th she could go back out and see them. As soon as the clock struck midnight she returned to Tarrant and their home in the dream world."

"It's a little like Cinderella," Ashley said.

"A little like," Helen smiled.

"Did they have children in Wonderland?" Ashley wanted to know.

"They didn't," her mother sighed. "But they didn't mind that much. They were happiest with each other." She smiled down at her young daughter. "And now you know the true story."

"I like that version much better," Ashley told her. "It's the best story."

"Truth is usually is," Helen agreed. She kissed Ashley's forehead and straightened her blanket. "Now, my darling, it is time for bed. I love you."

Ashley snuggled into the covers with her rabbit as Helen turned off the light. "I love you too mommy."


End file.
